Multimedia software is a broad, generic software category covering digital photography editing, DVD authoring and editing, animation creation, video editing, web design, and all types of multimedia creation. Unless you have specialized needs, your installed office suite product (such as Microsoft office or Corel office) likely has tools to do much of what you need.
Multimedia applications can be sold as a one-stop solution that combines photo editing tools, video editing tools (in some products), stock photos, flash animations, backgrounds & music tracks to create slide shows, DVDs, product demos, office presentations, business cards and more. Other multimedia solutions with more specialized functions are sold as separate software applications for each media option (Video, DVD, Photo, MP3).
Features available in software for multimedia include:
- Photo editing
- Video editing / conversion
- Flash animation
- Music tracks
- Support wide range of image formats
- Editing wizards
- Customizable transitions
- Convert digital video to DVD or other storage device
- High end image editing
- Creative graphics
Major Vendors in the multimedia solutions arena:
- Microsoft
- Ulead (multiple software applications sold separately)
- Digital Workshop (one-stop software solution w/ different feature levels)
- Presentware (one-stop software solution)
- Xecute (multiple software applications sold separately)
Factors to consider when purchasing multimedia solutions software:
- Don't buy software containing features you don't need
- Unless you have specialized editing requirements, most multimedia editing needs can likely be met using your office suite software
- If you need specialty software, consider buying the product others in your industry are using
- Ease of use
- System resources: Not usually an issue, but sometimes small business environments are on over-taxed hardware already.